I      If  S  \C  O 

•«  "    »*   "-    *%     • 


GIFT   OF 
Clasps   of   1887 


The  Message  of  Religion 

tO  U:\::\-       ."•.:;• 

the  Men  of  Our  Day./../::"0:\;:\::: 


BY 

REV.  CHAS.  R.  BROVN 


1902 

BAKER.  PRINTING  CO. 
OAKLAND.   CAL. 


c\ 


s 


*THE    MESSAGE    OF    RELIGION 
TO  THE  MEN  OF  OUR  DAY 

"After  the   death   of  Moses,    the   Lord  spake 
unto  Joshua."— Josh,  i;  i. 

|HERE  is  a  world  of  meaning  wrapped 
up  in  those  ten  short  words.  You 
may  say  that  the  real  history  of  the 
Hebrew  race  began  with  its  deliv- 
erance from  Egypt  under  the  leadership  of 
Moses.  There  are  interesting  stories  stretching 
further  back  but  they  are  stories  of  individuals 
rather  than  of  a  race.  The  Hebrew  nation 
had  its  birthday  on  that  memorable  night 
when  the  Lord  in  his  mercy  ''passed  over  " 
them,  and  when  they  in  turn  "  passed  over  " 
the  Red  Sea.  Their  feast  of  the  Passover 
down  to  the  present  hour  is  a  celebration  of 
those  incidents  that  lay  at  the  foundation  of 
their  political  and  religious  development. 
And  the  leading  figure  in  that  whole  period  of 
their  history  was  this  same  Moses. 

He  had  the  qualities  that  belong  to  effective 
leadership.      He  stirred   a   race   of  helpless 

*This  sermon  was  first  preached  in  the  First  Congregational 
Church,  Oakland.  It  was  afterward  given  in  this  modified 
form  at  Berkeley  as  the  Baccalaureate  Sermon  before  the  Grad- 
uating Class  of  1902  in  the  University  of  California ;  and  also 
at  the  Anniversary  of  the  Christian  Associations  during  Com- 
mencement Week  at  Stanford  University. 


845667 


THE   MESSAGE  OF  RELIGION 


slay  ejsrtm  til  they  were  ready  to  act.  He  con- 
'. /frpated  and  successfully  resisted  their  oppres- 
.... spars. »  .He  led  the  fugitives  across  the  sea  into 
».»  the 'Wilderness.  He  conducted  them  in  all 
their  wanderings,  finding  manna  by  the  way 
and  water  in  the  rocks.  He  climbed  the 
death-fence  at  the  foot  of  Sinai  and  from  the 
top  of  the  Mount  gained  a  vision  of  God,  as 
it  were  face  to  face.  He  brought  down  out  of 
that  experience  the  laws  that  were  to  lie  at 
the  foundation  of  Hebrew  growth  and  useful- 
ness. He  led  the  people  on  to  the  river 
Jordan  and  showed  them  the  land  of  promise 
just  within  their  reach.  And  then  just  there 
he  died. 

It  seemed  a  loss  irreparable.  We  wonder 
how  his  place  could  be  filled  and  how  the 
work  could  go  on  without  him.  But  the 
author  of  the  text  treats  the  event  calmly, — 
' '  after  the  death  of  Moses,  the  Lord  spake 
unto  Joshua." 

The  workers  change — they  come  and  go  in 
shifts — the  work  goes  on.  Moses,  and  then 
after  he  is  gone,  Joshua  ;  David  the  king  and 
then  Isaiah  the  prophet ;  John  the  beloved 
disciple  of  the  inner  life  and  Paul  the  sturdy 
apostle  of  missionary  activity  ;  Luther  and 
then  Calvin ;  Jonathan  Edwards  and  then 
Henry  Ward  Beecher — so  they  come  and  so 
they  go.  Each  man  the  servant  of  an  eternal 
purpose  ;  each  man  doing  his  stint  and  then 


TO  THE   MEN   OF   OUR   DAY 


sinking  back  into  the  rest  that  remains  for 
the  people  of  God.  And  into  every  place  left 
vacant,  a  new  man  called  ! 

But  it  is  not  only  another  man  but  a  differ- 
ent type  of  man  who  is  called  into  the  field. 
The  text  brings  out  a  bold  contrast.  Moses 
was  a  man  of  peace,  the  meekest  of  men.  We 
never  find  him  with  a  sword  in  his  hand.  He 
was  busy  with  the  laws,  the  ceremonies,  the 
institutions  that  were  to  educate  an  illiterate 
race  in  rightousness  and  holiness.  He  was  a 
man  of  spiritual  vision.  He  saw  the  presence 
of  God  in  a  burning  bush  and  put  the  shoes 
off  his  feet  for  the  place  was  holy  ground. 
He  saw  the  presence  of  God  in  a  thunder 
storm  at  the  top  of  Sinai,  and  came  out  of  the 
experience  with  his  face  shining  from  the 
glory  he  had  seen.  He  saw  the  finger  of  God 
in  the  writing  of  those  moral  laws  that  belong 
to  any  nation's  wellbeing.  Along  these  lines 
of  effort  Moses  found  the  presence  of  God  and 
became  the  useful  servant  of  His  will. 

But  after  this  work  was  under  way,  after 
the  death  of  Moses,  the  L,ord  spoke  unto 
Joshua.  Work  of  another  sort  was  now  to  be 
undertaken.  Jericho  had  to  be  captured.  A 
licentious  and  idolatrous  people  was  to  be 
subdued.  A  footing  for  the  Israelites  was  to 
be  gained  in  the  land  given  to  their  fathers. 
The  conquered  territory  was  to  be  divided  up 
and  assigned  to  the  twelve  tribes.  Ability  of 


THE   MESSAGE  OF   RELIGION 


another  kind  was  in  demand  ;  soldierly 
courage  and  administrative  force  were  called 
for.  So  when  Joshua  had  his  vision  of  the 
Divine  Presence  it  came  in  these  terms.  He 
was  standing  outside  the  walls  of  Jericho 
when  "behold  there  stood  over  against  him  a 
man  with  a  drawn  sword  in  his  hand. "  Upon 
inquiry  this  mysterious  figure  proclaimed  him- 
self "  The  Captain  ot  the  Host  of  the  Lord. " 
And  this  place  where  Joshua  stood  face  to 
face  with  the  military  necessities  of  the  situa- 
tion and  face  to  face  with  the  offer  of  divine 
aid  in  meeting  those  necessities,  was  to  him 
holy  ground  and  he  too  put  the  shoes  off  his 
feet.  It  was  anotner  vision  of  the  same  God 
in  terms  that  belonged  to  a  different  form  of 
service. 

So  it  is  always — after  the  death  of  Moses 
the  Lord  speaks  unto  Joshua.  The  text  gives 
us  a  picture  of  the  constant  changes  that  have 
been  taking  place  and  are  taking  place  now 
in  that  work  which  the  Lord  of  all  the  values 
there  are,  steadily  carries  forward.  Many  a 
Moses  and  many  a  method  has  done  its 
appointed  task  and  passed  away  ;  then  the 
Lord  has  called  a  different  type  of  man  and 
another  sort  of  method  into  the  field.  These 
changes  bring  not  dismay  but  inspira- 
tion to  the  children  of  the  kingdom.  They 
indicate  that  we  are  the  children  of  the  living 
God.  And  so  in  view  of  the  changes 


TO  THE   MEN   OF  OUR   DAY 


that  are  taking  place  in  the  aspects  of  religious 
work,  I  want  to  ask  what  are  some  of  the 
characteristic  features  of  the  message  religion 
has  for  the  men  of  our  day. 

/.  There  has  come  a  new  insistence  upon 
intellectual  accuracy  and  intellectual  modesty. 

It  is  part  of  the  scientific  habit  of  mind 
which  does  not  lump  things  but  weighs, 
measures,  analyzes  them.  While  in  religion 
we  are  confessedly  dealing  with  subjects  too 
vast  for  complete  comprehension  or  final 
statement,  there  is  an  insistence  that  as  far  as 
we  go  there  be  accuracy.  In  the  use  of  scrip- 
ture the  day  has  gone  when  men  try  to  settle 
the  question  of  probation  after  death  by  such 
texts  as  that  from  Ecclesiastes, — * '  where  the 
tree  falleth  there  it  shall  lie. "  The  statement 
about  the  tree  is  entirely  true  but  it  has  no 
more  bearing  on  the  question  of  probation 
after  death  than  that  other  equally  true  state- 
ment that  two  times  two  are  four.  Important 
New  Testament  doctrines  are  not  now  being 
artificially  bolstered  up  by  the  unscholarly  and 
unfair  use  of  Old  Testament  texts  pulled  out 
of  their  connection  and  bent  out  of  their  true 
shape.  No  biblical  scholar  could  hold  up  his 
head  and  look  the  world  in  the  face  if  he  tried 
now  to  make  those  warm  and  rosy  love  pas- 
sages in  the  Song  of  Solomon  represent  in  some 
allegorical  fashion  the  love  of  Christ  for  his 
church.  That  whole  method  of  compelling 


THE  MESSAGE  OF   RELIGION 


scripture  to  mean  anything  and  everything 
which  might  make  for  our  side  is  being 
abandoned  as  inaccurate  and  intellectually 
dishonest.  All  straining  and  twisting  of  texts 
is  an  abomination  to  the  Lord  !  "  Interpret 
the  Bible  like  any  other  book,"  was  Jowett's 
dictum.  It  shocked  the  men  of  that  day  but 
it  is  now  a  commonplace  of  biblical  scholar- 
ship. The  sole  question  is,  What  do  these 
statements  mean,  coming  as  they  do  from  a 
certain  man,  out  of  a  certain  environment, 
addressed  to  a  certain  set  of  needs.  There  is 
a  thoroughgoing  insistence  upon  intellectual 
accuracy.  And  nothing  less  than  that  could 
be  pleasing  to  Him  who  said,  "  I  am  the  truth. 
And  ye  shall  know  the  truth.  And  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free." 

And  a  new  intellectual  modesty  has  also 
come  in.  Men  are  not  now  making  loud  affirm- 
ations as  to  what  took  place  "in  the  Council 
Chamber  of  the  Trinity "  when  Father  and 
Son  made  certain  agreements  touching  the 
effects  of  the  sacrificial  death  of  Christ.  The 
teachers  of  religion  are  not  now  mapping  out 
the  future  world  with  detailed  statements  as 
to  its  heaven  and  hell,  nor  giving  expert 
estimates  as  to  the  probable  population  of 
each  when  the  rolls  are  all  made  up.  One 
great  Protestant  Church  many  years  ago 
made  bold  to  say  that  God  by  his  eternal  de- 
crees had  determined  beforehand  those  who 


TO  THE  MEN  OF  OUR   DAY 


should  be  saved  and  those  who  should  be  lost 
and  that  nothing  men  could  do  would  in  any 
wise  change  the  result  of  those  decrees.  And 
now  the  wisest  men  of  that  denomination  are 
wishing  with  all  their  hearts  that  there  was 
some  way  of  quietly  shelving  those  statements 
to  which  they  can  no  longer  heartily  subscribe. 
The  over- confident  assertions  of  other  days 
have  given  place  to  the  more  careful  and 
modest  affirmations  that  the  voice  of  religion 
is  now  making. 

It  This  fact  brings  a  sense  of  discouragement 
to  some  earnest  people.  They  call  our  time 
an  (<  infidel  and  unbelieving  time  "  and  speak 
fondly  of  "the  ages  of  faith."  It  does  not 
seem  that  way  to  me.  Our  age  is  less  credulous 
than  some  other  ages  have  been.  A  shout  of 
laughter  would  go  up  if  some  Oakland 
citizen  claimed  that  his  children  were  sick 
and  his  cow  was  giving  bloody  milk  because 
a  hostile  neighbor  had  "  bewitched "  them. 
Yet  it  is  only  a  little  over  a  hundred  years 
since  the  last  "  witch"  was  put  to  death  by 
civil  process.  That  day,  thank  God,  has  gone 
but  after  the  death  of  such  credulity,  the 
L,ord  has  spoken  to  the  intellectual  mood  and 
habit  of  our  own  age.  Was  there  ever  a  time 
when  so  many  men  were  sure  of  God,  sure  of 
a  wise,  powerful,  beneficent  Being  who  is  the 
ground  and  source  of  all  finite  being  ?  There 
certainly  never  was  a  time  when  so  many  men 


10  THE   MESSAGE  OF   REI4GION 

of  all  races  and  tongues  looked  up  into  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ  and  saw  there  the  face  of 
the  Eternal,  their  Master,  Saviour,  Lord  ! 
There  never  was  a  time  when  so  many 
serious-minded  people,  discarding  perhaps 
some  of  the  magic  which  became  entangled 
with  the  idea  of  prayer,  firmly  believed  that 
prayer  is  to  sweeten  the  world  by  its  fragrance 
and  change  the  lives  of  men  by  its  moral 
force !  There  was  never  a  time  when  so 
many  believed  that  in  this  body  of  literature 
called  the  Bible  there  lies  embedded  a  genuine 
message  from  God  to  men  not  inerrant  in  all 
its  scientific  and  historical  statements  but 
abundantly  able  to  make  us  wise  unto  sal- 
vation and  to  furnish  us  thoroughly  for  every 
good  work  !  There  never  was  a  time  when 
so  many  looked  forward  with  serene  trust  to  a 
future  life,  not  mapped  out  but  remaining 
still  an  "  undiscovered  country  "  as  it  must 
remain  for  earthly  experience,  yet  brought 
upon  the  map  and  within  the  moral  confidence 
by  the  life  and  teaching,  the  death  and  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  Christ !  This  insistence  upon 
intellectual  accuracy  and  intellectual  modesty 
may  have  reduced  the  number  of  points 
on  which  religious  people  stand  ready  to  make 
positive  affirmation  but  it  has  increased  the 
number  who  can  join  in  the  affirmation  and 
increased  the  reality  and  strength  of  it  ten 
fold. 


TO  THE   MEN   OF   OUR   DAY  II 

//.  There  has  been  a  change  of  emphasis 
in  the  method  by  which  salvation  is  accom- 
plished. 

Salvation  means  moral  recovery  from  all 
that  hurts  and  hinders  our  growth  into  the 
likeness  and  image  of  the  Father.  The 
changed  emphasis  in  this  work  may  be 
roughly  indicated  by  the  use  of  two  words, 
"crisis"  and  "process."  They  are  not 
suggested  as  mutually  exclusive  for  in  all 
times  the  elements  of  each  have  blended  with 
the  other,  but  they  indicate  how  the  point  of 
view  has  shifted. 

The  sacramental  idea  of  religion  made 
much  of  the  crisis.  The  unbaptized  soul  is 
unregenerate  but  the  moment  the  holy  water 
in  the  hands  of  an  officiating  priest  falls  upon 
the  head  of  babe  or  believing  adult,  he  passes 
from  an  unsaved  to  a  saved  condition.  The 
dogmatic  view  affirms  that  the  hearty 
assent  to  certain  theological  propositions 
works  the  same  change  in  one's  standing  be- 
fore God.  If  the  unbelieving  soul  can  be 
brought  even  upon  his  death-bed  to  murmur 
an  assent  to  certain  vital  truths,  it  may  affect 
his  whole  future  destiny.  The  emotional  type 
of  religion  makes  much  of  crisis — until  there 
has  come  in  the  the  emotional  nature  of  the 
man  an  overturning  and  overwhelming  crisis, 
he  is  without  the  benefits  of  religion.  In  all 
these  the  emphasis  has  been  strongly  upon 


12  THE  MESSAGE  OF   RELIGION 

the  crisis  in  the  moral    history    rather  than 
upon  the  process. 

You  may  say  that  all  this  is  otherwise  to- 
day. Baptism  is  administered  as  a  useful  and 
appropriate  sign  of  a  spiritual  process,  the 
cleansing  of  the  inner  life  by  the  ministry  of 
God's  truth  and  grace.  The  apprehension 
and  acceptance  of  certain  doctrinal  statements 
is  valuable  but  only  as  it  induces  a  certain 
movement  of  the  will  and  leads  to  certain 
habits  of  action.  And  emotional  experiences 
depending  as  they  do  upon  individual  tem- 
perament, training,  the  qualky  and  amount  of 
stimulus  given  in  the  service  that  seeks  to 
produce  them,  find  whatever  significance  they 
possess  only  in  the  moral  attitude  that  results 
and  the  new  lines  of  moral  effort  to  which  they 
introduce  the  soul.  In  every  case  the  atten- 
tion is  directed  to  the  process  rather  than  to 
the  crisis  which  may  have  some  small  place 
within  it. 

In  a  word  religious  experience  is  being 
phrased  to-day  not  in  terms  of  crisis  taken 
from  some  special  texts  of  scripture  but  in  the 
terms  of  domestic  life,  a  Father  bringing  up 
and  bringing  out  his  children  into  conscious, 
obedient,  joyous  fellowship  with  himself.  It 
is  being  phrased  in  the  terms  of  education, 
the  Master  educating,  leading  out  his  disciples 
or  learners,  into  selfrealization  through  the 
selfexpression  of  worship  and  service.  The 


TO  THB  MEN   OF  OtJR   DAY  13 


appointments  of  the  church,  the  spiritual 
paedogogy  of  the  Sunday  School  and  nine 
tenths  of  all  the  good  religious  reading  pro- 
ceed upon  the  principle  that  salvation  is  a 
moral  process  conducted  by  the  spirit  of  God 
in  the  heart  of  the  man. 

This  emphasis  matches  the  mood  and 
method  of  those  who  engage  in  scientific  or 
historical  or  literary  study.  It  helps  to  organ- 
ize religion  with  the  other  forces  that  are 
moulding  the  life  of  the  world.  It  need  not 
and  must  not  obscure  the  fact  that  salvation 
involves  the  conscious,  definite  surrender  of 
the  will  to  God  and  the  establishment  of  filial 
relations  with  Him  in  His  kingdom.  But  in 
placing  the  emphasis  upon  process  rather 
than  upon  crisis  it  gives  sacredness  and  sig- 
nificance not  alone  to  the  sacramental  or 
emotional  moments  in  the  man's  moral 
history,  but  to  all  that  comes  within  the  range 
of  his  interest.  It  makes  it  possible  for  a 
man  to  feel  that  whether  he  eats  or  drinks,  or 
buys  and  sells,  or  teaches  and  learns,  or  prays 
and  sings,  he  may  be  doing  all  to  the  glory  of 
God  and  giving  all  these  activities  a  holy 
place  in  that  process  of  salvation  which  is  be- 
ing worked  out  within  him  by  the  resident 
energy  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

///.  There  has  come  a  change  in  the  form 
of  the  motive. 

Once  the  prominent  motive  was  safety,  now 


14  THE  MESSAGE  OF   REUGION 

it  is  usefulness.  The  rescue  idea  is  not  being 
largely  worked  in  religious  effort  for  it  has 
lost  its  power  of  appeal.  The  cry  "  Repent 
and  believe  or  you  will  go  to  hell,"  does  not 
find  men  where  they  live  as  it  once  did.  The 
offer  of  blessed  immortality  or  any  other 
personal  advantage  to  those  who  measure  up 
to  a  certain  standard  in  their  righteous  attain- 
ments, is  not  the  moving  offer  it  has  been. 
The  motive  that  springs  from  the  joy  of  use- 
fulness is  more  in  harmony  with  the  mood  of 
our  day;  it  has  more  gunpowder  behind  it 
than  the  motive  that  springs  from  the  desire 
for  personal  security.  And  it  is  more  in  line 
with  the  method  of  Him  who  said,  "  He  that 
saveth  his  life  shall  lose  it ;  and  he  that  loseth 
his  life  in  my  service  shall  save  it. "  The 
main  attraction  in  the  offer  of  salvation  is  the 
guarantee  it  brings  of  an  enlarged  usefulness 
in  building  up  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 
The  gain  of  this  habit  is  seen  on  every  side. 
Those  ages  of  faith,  as  they  are  fondly  called 
—what  were  they  doing  with  their  mighty 
confidence?  They  put  forth  huge  creeds, 
which  stand  to  this  hour  for  the  dismay 
and  embarrassment  of  more  critical  minds, 
but  the  hard  fact  stands  that  the  faith  that 
wrote  the  confessions  was  not  busy  on 
foreign  mission  fields,  leading  the  ignorant 
into  the  light,  or  teaching  them  to  treat  disease 
on  a  basis  of  medical  science  rather  than  of 


TO  THE  MEN  OF  OUR  DAY  15 

magic  or  bringing  misguided  souls  into  a 
knowledge  of  the  God  and  Father  of  our  I/ord 
Jesus  Christ.  The  world  had  to  wait  for  our 
restless  questioning  nineteenth  century  to  fur- 
nish the  missionary  impulse  that  has  planted 
the  banner  of  the  Cross  from  the  rising  of  the 
sun  to  the  going  down  of  the  same.  The  faith 
that  wrote  the  huge  confessions  was  not  busy 
building  hospitals  for  the  poor,  establishing 
homes  for  the  aged  and  orphaned,  planting 
day  nurseries  and  social  settlements  where 
they  would  work  recovery,  laying  the 
foundations  that  are  enabling  the  strong  to 
intelligently  and  effectively  bear  the  burdens 
of  the  weak.  In  those  ages,  men,  women 
and  children  were  dying  like  rats  in  the  un- 
cared  for  portions  of  the  cities  out  of  which 
came  the  great  plagues.  To-day  the  money  and 
the  time,  the  thought  and  the  love  of  Christen- 
dom is  hastening  into  the  darker  places  of 
earth  to  come  no  more  out  until  they  are  all 
made  bright.  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them  "—not  by  the  size,  thickness  and  shape 
of  their  creedal  trunk  and  limbs  but  by  their 
fruits — by  what  they  give  off  and  hand  over 
to  feed  and  bless  a  needy  world.  The  change 
of  motive  from  personal  security  to  usefulness 
is  like  a  tree  of  life  planted  in  the  middle  of 
the  street,  bearing  its  twelve  manner  of  fruit 
for  every  season  of  the  year.  Usefulness  not 
safety — there  is  the  ground  of  appeal  !  The 


l6  THE    MESSAGE  OF  RELIGION 

man  of  God  can  serve  his  generation  wisely, 
deeply,  permanently,  as  a  godless  man  cannot 
— therefore  Him  and  Him  only  shalt  thou 
serve  ! 

You  remember  Tertullian's  picture.  He 
was  an  orthodox  church  father  and  in  a  glow- 
ing sermon  he  pictured  the  bliss  of  the  re- 
deemed. In  the  cool  of  the  evening  they 
walked  out  along  the  battlements  of  the 
eternal  city.  They  looked  over  and  there 
were  the  lost  souls  enduring  the  torments  of 
the  under  world  !  As  the  devils  prodded  the 
poor  unfortunates  and  the  flames  leaped  about 
them  in  angry  heat,  the  redeemed  souls  real- 
ized afresh  the  joy  of  their  personal  security 
and  the  awful  fate  from  which  they  had  been 
saved  !  And  this  moved  them  to  burst  forth 
with  new  songs  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  to 
God! 

Does  that  appeal  to  you  ?  Does  it  stir  one 
single  atom  of  Christian  impulse  in  any  heart 
here?  Judged  by  the  prevailing  attitude  of 
our  day  does  it  not  look  altogether  in  the 
wrong  direction  ?  What  would  be  the  first  im- 
pulse of  a  company  of  genuine  Christians 
standing  in  that  situation  now?  Surely  this, 
'  *  Cannot  we  do  something  for  the  relief  and 
recovery  of  those  poor  fellows  ?  If  it  lies 
within  the  power  of  God  or  of  man,  may  we 
not  organize  a  rescue  party  to  go  upon  that 
mission — perilous  it  may  be,— well  and  good 


TO  tHB  MEN   OF   OUR   DAY  17 


but  let  us  seek  to  recover  those  unfortunates 
from  their  pain."  Nothing  less  than  that 
would  find  the  conscience  or  stir  the  enthusi- 
asm of  the  honest-hearted  men  and  women  of 
our  day.  Usefulness  is  more  to  them  than 
personal  security.  In  usefulness  they  find 
their  salvation ;  in  usefulness  they  are  to 
realize  their  heaven  ;  and  so  up  out  of  the 
riches  of  usefulness  which  Christian  character 
makes  possible,  comes  the  appeal  that  enlists 
the  active  eager  lives  under  the  banner  of  the 
Cross ! 

IV.  There  is  a  new  sense  of  breadth  in  the 
undertakings  of  religion. 

In  other  days  the  aim  seems  to  have  been 
to  recover  out  of  a  lost  world  as  much  as 
might  be.  Brands  snatched  from  the  burn- 
ing ;  rescued  souls  from  the  sinking  ship  ; 
handfuls  of  meal  taken  aside  to  receive  the 
leaven  ;  groups  of  people  gathered  out  of  the 
world  into  the  church  ;  favored  nations  made 
wise  and  good  while  the  huge  pagan  popula- 
tions across  the  sea  lay  in  darkness  and  sin — 
these  familiar  expressions  indicate  something" 
as  to  the  reach  of  the  current  ambition.  But 
now  the  undertaking  is  greater.  Men  are 
saying,  "We  must  put  out  the  fire  of  de- 
structive evil.  We  must  make  the  ship  that 
holds  our  human  interests  seaworthy  and 
learn  to  sail  it  on  all  seas.  We  must  put  the 
leaven  not  into  a  few  chosen  handfuls  of  meal 


l8  THE  MESSAGE  OF  REWGION 

but  boldly  down  into  the  whole  mass  of  in- 
dustrial, political,  educational,  social  and 
international  relationships,  to  the  end  that 
the  entire  lump  of  earthly  life  may  be 
leavened."  The  task  is  not  to  get  a  few 
people  out  of  the  world  into  the  church  but 
to  get  the  church  with  all  its  aims  and  ideals, 
its  principles  and  spirit  out  into  the  world,  to 
the  end  that  the  world  may  be  changed  and 
saved. 

We  all  feel  how  inadequate  our  present  Chris- 
tian forces  are  for  this  greater  undertaking 
but  thank  God  for  the  courageous  Joshuas 
who  are  attempting  to  make  "  the  world  the 
subject  of  redemption."  This  big,  burly, 
buzzing,  blooming  confusion  called  "the 
world  ' '  is  the  thing  that  God  loved  to  such  a 
degree  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son 
for  its  redemption.  The  field  from  which 
the  harvests  that  alone  can  fill  the  granary 
of  God  are  to  grow  is,  as  Christ  said  ' '  the 
world"  with  all  its  tangled  and  confusing 
problems.  And  nothing  less  than  such  a 
breadth  of  undertaking  will  command  the  in- 
terest or  the  consecration  of  the  people  of  our 
time.  After  the  death  of  the  men  who 
attempted  less  the  L,ord  has  spoken  unto  our 
time  that  it  might  attempt  more  ! 

We  have  not  gone  far.  We  have  made  a 
dent  on  the  side  of  China  which  she  scarcely 
feels  as  she  moves  upon  her  stolid  way.  We 


TO  THE   MEN    OF   OUR    DAY  19 

have  done  more  in  Japan  and  still  more  in 
India,  although  there  remaineth  much  land 
to  be  possessed.  But  the  Christian  leaven 
is  there  working,  never  to  be  taken  out 
until  those  kingdoms  are  kingdoms  of  Christ. 
We  have  gone  a  very  little  way  in  establish- 
ing Christian  ideals  in  industry,  in  politics, 
in  society  or  in  education,  but  certain  brave 
men  have  gone  into  those  regions  as  John 
the  Baptists  crying, l '  The  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  at  hand."  They  are  the  forerunners  of 
something  greater.  In  the  presence  of  the 
ideals  they  carry,  all  other  ideals  look  cheap 
and  weak.  Those  higher  ideals  will  remain 
until  they  subdue  all  things  unto  them- 
selves. This  greater  breadth  of  view,  this 
falling  away  of  the  walls  between  the  sacred 
and  the  secular,  making  all  interests  clean, 
this  effort  to  sanctify  the  whole  of  life  by  the 
presence  of  moral  purpose  and  spiritual 
passion,  is  but  the  response  our  time  is  mak- 
ing to  the  call  of  Him  who  said,  "Go  ye  into 
all  the  world;  wash  it,  teach  it,  organize  it  into 
a  permanent  kingdom  and  habitation  of  your 
God." 

V.  There  is  abroad  among  us  a  more  vital 
conception  of  the  relation  of  Jesus  Christ  to 
humanity. 

You  will  see  what  I  mean  if  you  set  side  by 
side  two  well-known  books.  The  first  was 
published  in  1869  just  ten  years  after  Darwin's 


20  THE   MESSAGE   OE   RELIGION 

Origin  of  Species  appeared  and  before  the  ideas 
it  announced  had  become  fairly  operative. 
Canon  Liddon  of  the  English  §  Church  had 
given  at  Oxford  University  a  course  of  lectures 
upon  "  The  Divinity  of  our  Lord  "  and  under 
that  title  they  were  published.  Then  thirty 
years  later,  Dr.  George  A.  Gordon  of  the  Old 
South  Church,  Boston,  published  the  other 
book  called  The  Christ  oj  To-day.  The 
contrast  between  the  two  books  is  suggestive  ! 

The  first  emphasizes  the  difference  and  dis- 
tance between  Christ  and  humanity.  It  tells 
us  strongly  that  between  him  and  us  there  is  a 
great  gulf  fixed.  And  the  main  contention 
is,  I  believe,  true.  The  over  whelming  majority 
of  Christian  people  worship  Jesus  Christ,  yet 
they  would  worship  no  man,  not  the  wisest 
nor  the  best.  The  difference  was  there  and  it 
was  well  that  it  be  brought  out. 

But  after  the  death  of  Liddon  the  Lord 
spoke  unto  Gordon.  In  his  book  Christ  is  set 
forth  as  the  Complete  Man,  the  Representative 
Man,  the  Son  of  Man  and  the  Head  of  Human- 
ity. This  truth  is  not  unrecognized  in  the 
former  book  but  it  is  made  popular  and  effec- 
tive in  the  later  one.  The  leading  claim  in 
The  Christ  of  To-day  is  in  itself  an  argument 
for  his  divinity  because  such  humanity,  made 
perfectly  in  the  likeness  of  the  Father,  being 
the  express  image  of  His  Person,  is  Divine. 
And  the  more  vital  relation  in  which  it  helps 


TO  THE   MEN   OF   OUR   DAY  21 

to  organize  Christ  with  our  struggling,  suffer- 
ing, sinning  humanity  is  splendidly  helpful. 

Jesus  Christ  the  Head  of  Humanity,  his  re- 
lation to  all  men  that  of  the  vine  to  the  branch 
—how  full  of  moral  stimulus  and  inspiration 
it  becomes  !  The  thoughts  that  I  think  in  my 
head,  the  desires  I  cherish  there,  the  deter- 
minations I  there  form,  how  they  flow  out 
and  down  affecting  powerfully  the  health,  the 
movements,  the  efficiency  of  my  whole  body! 
So  Christ  the  head  of  humanity  through  the 
thoughts  He  thinks,  through  what  He  feels 
and  wills,  becomes  increasingly  a  determining 
force  in  the  life  of  the  race  to  which  He 
stands  organically  related. 

And  Christ  the  Vine,  men  the  branches  ! 
Out  of  that  Vine  flows  perpetually  into  every 
branch  which  does  not  put  up  the  barrier  of  a 
sinful  will,  the  stream  of  spiritual  vitality 
making  the  branches  alive  with  the  Vine's 
own  life,  making  them  fruitful  with  the 
Vine's  own  fruit !  Oh  that  men  would  open 
their  hearts  to  that  conception  of  Christ,  not 
standing  apart  from  us  in  dogmatic  isolation 
but  organized  with  us !  How  it  would  fill 
every  soul  with  a  new  moral  energy,  with  a 
fresh  hope  for  the  race,  with  a  magnificent 
confidence  that  the  kingdom  of  God  can  be 
established  on  the  earth  because  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  head  of  humanity  ! 

It  is  the  concrete  and  personal  always   that 


22  THE  MESSAGE  OF  REWGION 

makes  the  potent  appeal  to  the  many.  The 
writers  of  fiction  are  furnishing  three  fourths 
of  the  world's  literary  provender  at  this  time 
we  are  told,  because  they  attempt  to  give 
us  pictures  of  life  rather  than  abstract  dis- 
cussion of  its  values.  And  students  the 
world  over  are  not  going  off  alone  Faust- 
like  to  study  in  dusty  libraries  ;  tney 
are  hurrying  to  the  Universities  where 
are  the  living  teachers.  And  thus  the 
mightiest  religious  appeal  comes  from  that 
concrete  and  personal  revelation  of  the 
divine  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  This  wide- 
spread interest  in  and  new  feeling  for  Christ 
is  therefore  built  upon  a  sure  foundation.  It 
fills  every  thoughtful  man  with  hope  for  the 
future.  Grant  that  the  presentation  of  Christ 
in  much  of  the  popular  literature,  in  the 
lighter  studies  of  many  schools,  in  the  ser- 
mons from  many  a  pulpit,  are  inadequate — 
alas,  whose  presentation  of  Him,  the  length 
and  breadth,  the  height  and  depth  of  whose 
love  passeth  knowledge,  is  adequate!  And 
grant  that  much  of  this  interest  is  superficial. 
Nevertheless  at  least  the  hem  of  His  seamless 
robe  is  there  and  needy  souls  are  blindly  but 
expectantly  putting  forth  that  touch  of  faith 
which  is  for  their  recovery.  It  is  true  that  on 
every  side  the  presence  of  the  spirit  and  power 
of  Christ  in  our  modern  life  to  a  degree  un- 
known before  in  the  history  of  the  world,  is 


TO  THE  MEN  OF  OUR   DAY  23 

bringing  good  tidings  to  the  poor,  binding  up 
the  broken-hearted,  preaching  deliverance  to 
the  moral  captives  and  setting  at  liberty  them 
that  are  bruised  !  This  day,  oh  men  of  Cali- 
fornia, that  scripture  is  being  fulfilled  in  your 
ears  ! 

I  believe  then  that  religion  was  never  in  a 
position  to  say  so  much  or  to  say  it  so  effect- 
ively as  right  now  in  the  message  it  has  for 
the  generation  to  which  you  as  young  men 
and  young  women  belong.  It  is  for  you  with 
open  mind  and  honest  heart  to  receive  its  mes- 
sage and  help  phrase  it  according  to  the  habits 
of  intellectual  accuracy  that  belong  to  your 
University  training.  It  is  for  you  with  your 
acquaintance  with  the  cosmic  processes  that 
have  made  the  world  as  we  find  it,  to  lend 
your  strength  to  those  processes  of  moral  re- 
covery which  are  to  be  the  salvation  of  man- 
kind. It  is  for  you,  taught  at  the  expense  of 
the  State  for  the  welfare  of  the  State,  to  find 
not  in  personal  security  nor  selfish  advant- 
age but  in  usefulness  the  motives  that  will 
bind  you  to  the  highest  forms  of  effort. 
It  is  for  you  to  live  with  your  windows 
open  on  all  sides  and  in  that  breadth  of 
view  to  see  to  it  that  all  the  human  interests 
are  coming  into  the  kingdom  of  God  to  sit 
down  in  sacred  fellowship  with  all  the  forces 
that  fire  the  hearts  of  men  with  moral  energy 
and  spiritual  aspiration.  It  is  for  you  to  find 


24  THE    MESSAGE  OF  RELIGION 

in  Jesus  Christ  the  One  who  somehow  is  tak- 
ing the  moral  government  of  the  world  upon 
his  shoulder  and  who  is  making  all  things 
new  because  He  is  the  Head  of  Humanity. 

Thank  God  for  all  that  He  said  to  Moses  ! 
Thank  Him  again  that  after  the  death  of 
Moses  He  spoke  unto  Joshua !  And  thank 
Him  yet  again,  that  after  all  he  has  said  to 
the  generations  that  are  gone,  He  still  has  a 
message  for  the  men  of  the  hour  bidding  them 
enter  in  and  possess  a  land  which  the  fathers 
saw  afar  off.  "As  I  was  with  Moses  so  I  will 
be  with  thee.  Be  strong  and  of  a  good  cour- 
age, then  thou  shalt  make  thy  way  prosper- 
ous, then  thou  shalt  have  good  success.  Be 
strong  and  of  a  good  courage,  for  the  Lord  thy 
God  is  with  thee  whithersoever  thou  goest. " 


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